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Development of a Multibody Dynamics Based Simulation of a Lift-Truck in a High Speed Turn to Evaluate Dynamic Lateral Stability 2015-01-2752

This paper discusses the development and preliminary validation of a dynamic stability test simulation to fulfill a new dynamic lateral stability requirement for lift trucks sold in the European market.

A representative lift truck was chosen and instrumented to capture vehicle path, travel speed, and lateral acceleration during a high speed turn. The vehicle was simulated using a Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) approach in a commercially available software package.

Experimental data showed significant variation in a human operator's vehicle path, which had a strong effect on the measured lateral acceleration during a high speed turn. Preliminary comparisons showed reasonable agreement between the simulation model and physical test data. Additionally, it was found that the simulation provided a consistent measure of comparison to evaluate the effect of design changes to observed lateral stability.